AP Literature Literary Terms Part 1

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Sound device; repetition of initial consonant sounds

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Figure of speech which makes brief reference to an historical or literary figure, event, or object; a reference in one literary work to a character or theme found in another literary work

Question 3

Anachronism

Answer 3

Something out of its place in time or history

Question 4

Analogy

Answer 4

The comparison of two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one

Question 5

Anaphora

Answer 5

The repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases for rhetorical or poetic effect

Question 6

Antagonist

Answer 6

The character in a narrative or play who is in conflict with another main character

Question 7

Anticlimax

Answer 7

The intentional use of elevated language to describe the trivial or commonplace, or a sudden transition from a significant thought to a trivial one in order to achieve a humorous or satiric effect

Question 8

Anti-hero

Answer 8

A protagonist who is the antithesis of the hero

Question 9

Antithesis

Answer 9

Figure of speech in which a thought is balanced with a contrasting thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases

Question 10

Aphorism

Answer 10

Brieft statement which expresses an observation on life

Question 11

Apostrophe

Answer 11

Addressing someone or something, usually not present, as though present

Question 12

Aside

Answer 12

A statement delivered by a actor in such a way that the other characters on stage are presumed not to have heard him

Question 13

Assonance

Answer 13

Similarity or repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words, especially in a line of verse

Question 14

Asyndeton

Answer 14

The omission of conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words and phrases

Question 15

Ballad

Answer 15

A form of verse to be sung or recited and characterized by a dramatic or exciting episode in fairly short narrative

Question 16

Bildungsroman

Answer 16

A novel showing the development of its central character from childhood to maturity

Question 17

Blank verse

Answer 17

Unrhymed iambic pentameter; metrical verse with no ending rhyme

Question 18

Caesura

Answer 18

A pause for effect in the middle of a line of poetry

Question 19

Catharsis

Answer 19

Aristotle’s word for the pity and fear an audience experiences upon viewing the downfall of a hero

Question 20

Cause and effect relationships

Answer 20

A dominant technique in which the author analyzes reasons for a chain of events

Question 21

Characterization

Answer 21

The method a writer uses to reveal the personality of a character in a literary work

Question 22

Chiasmus

Answer 22

Repetition in successive clauses which are usually parallel in syntax

Question 23

Classicism

Answer 23

An approach to literature which emphasizes reason, harmony, balance, proportion, clarity, and the imitation of ancient writer and philosophers

Question 24

Colloquial

Answer 24

Informal, not always grammatically correct expression that find acceptance in certain geographical areas and within certain groups of people

Question 25

Comic relief

Answer 25

Something of humor interrupts an otherwise serious, often tragic, literary work; a humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work

Question 26

Complication

Answer 26

The part of a plot in which the entanglement caused by the conflict is developed

Question 27

Conceit

Answer 27

An extended metaphor–two unlike things are compared in several different ways

Question 28

Connotation

Answer 28

Emotional implications that a word may carry; implied or associated meaning for a particular word

Question 29

Consonance

Answer 29

The repetition of consonant sounds with differing vowel sounds in words near each other in a line or lines of poetry

Question 30

Couplet

Answer 30

A pair of rhyming lines written in the same meter